You likely know what is commonly said, derogatorily, about ‘making assumptions’. Well, I don’t want to be guilty of ‘assuming’ you 1) know what I’m about; 2) why I pen this weekly blog posting; and 3) where the manufactured housing industry and land-lease-lifestyle community (a.k.a. manufactured home community) realty asset class is possibly headed these days. So, in the following paragraphs I’ll address these legitimate queries.

First off; I’ve been involved in factory-built housing since 1970, a year after returning from a 13 month tour of duty, as a USMC combat engineer officer and shore party company commander, in the Republic of Vietnam. The newspaper ad I answered, for that first job, read simply: ‘WANTED: former military officer with background in construction’. After working for two PA & IN firms, in housing component fabrication, I segued to ‘mobile home park’ management in 1978, overseeing four large properties in Indiana and Kentucky, earning my real estate broker license, and Certified Property Manager® designation along the way.

In 1980, Carolyn and I founded GFA Management, Inc., as a fee management firm; one that, in her words, ‘managed anything that didn’t move’, e.g. strip malls, apartments, houses, offices, and yes, ‘mobile home parks’. With a partner, we bought our first income-producing property in the early 1980s; turning it around operationally and selling it. We continue as real estate investors and property managers to this day. Why – besides the income? If I’m going to write, and teach the Manufactured Housing Manager® professional property management training & certification program,, I need to be regularly involved with what’s going on in and around the manufactured housing industry and its’ various segments.

By 1988, when we self-published Mobile Home Park Management (since retitled Landlease Community Management & in its’ 6th edition), I’d moved into freelance consulting, routinely Mystery Shopping properties, engaging in turnaround planning and execution, as well as authoring textbooks for J. Wiley & Sons Publishers: Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities (with David Alley & Edward Hicks), and How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community. All three books continue to be available from PMN Publishing via Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (:877)MFD-HSNG or 633-4764, & community-investor.com website.

Also during the late 1980s and early 1990s, we debuted the first (of 26 to date) ALLEN REPORTs (a.k.a. ‘Who’s Who Among LLLCommunity Portfolio Owners/operators From Throughout North America!’), and first (of 23 to date) International Networking Roundtables – with # 24 scheduled for 9-11 September in San Diego, CA. We also facilitated the eventual appearance of several real estate investment trusts (‘REITs’) in 1994 & 1995, by researching, refining, compiling and popularizing the first manufactured home community Industry Standard Chart of (Operating) Accounts, along with corresponding Operating Expense Ratios, or OERs. These were used by Wall Street analysts to get ‘comfortable’ with this heretofore unknown realty asset class. It was also during that time frame, on 31 August 1993 specifically, when 19 MHCommunity owners met in Indianapolis to form the Industry Steering Committee, ensuring national advocacy when IPOs (Initial Public Offerings of stock) were launched. The ISC became MHI’s National Communities Council division on 1 January 1996. .

Since then, we rolled out the aforementioned MHM® program in 2001, having lain dormant since 1988, out of deference to MHEI’s Accredited Community Manager® program, launched in 1991. To date, nearly 1,000 MHMs have been certified. And along the way, GFA/PMN birthed and nurtured more than a dozen directories and resource documents (e.g. Lenders’ Registry, List of Consultants, etc.); today widely known as Signature Series Resource Documents or SSRDs.

But it was the National State of the Asset Class (‘NSAC’) caucuses, on 2/27/2008 & 2/27/2009, that brought the realty asset class into the 21st Century. In the first instance, more than 100 land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators convened in Tampa, FL., to ‘take control of their destiny’ – agreeing to a Five Action Areas plan, in effect to this day. And the following year, a 100 mix of home manufacturers and community owners/operators convened at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., to agree on design parameters for what came to be known as Community Series Homes, or CSH Models. This was acknowledgement that independent (street) MHRetailers could no longer be counted on to fill vacant rental homesites; that property owners/operators must now do so themselves, via selling ‘repo’, good quality resale, even new HUD-Code homes on-site, and seller-financing them when need be.

Hence, a NEW ERA for LLLCommunities was identified, along with the launch of the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, or COBA7® on or about 1 January 2014. And that pretty much brings us to today – and WHY I prepare this weekly blog posting at community-investor.com, along with the two subscriber-supported monthly newsletters, the Allen Letter professional journal & the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! WHY? It’s simple. All but one manufactured housing industry trade print publication, besides the two newsletters just mentioned, have passed from the business scene. And the one that’s left hasn’t changed its’ stable of columnists for a long time. Furthermore, the content quality of regularly published online newsletters, catering to the manufactured housing industry is, with one exception, questionable. That exception being Rishel Consulting’s finance newsletter; as it is should be ‘required reading’ for everyone engaged in any form of housing finance using chattel capital.

Finally; WHERE we are headed as an industry and realty asset class is not an easy question to answer without maybe treading on someone’s toes.

The manufactured housing industry, sad to say, is ‘dead in the water’ as long as there’s no easy access to chattel capital to finance housing transactions on-site in LLLCommunities. That’s why, after six long years, we continue to bump along at an annual average new home shipment nadir volume of only 55,000 per year – though it’s estimated we might come in somewhere between 60 & 70 thousand by year end 2015. However, as we know, ‘Thanks to disunity between national advocacy parties in Washington, DC., annual new home shipment totals will be reported differently.

Land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators fall into two distinct camps. There’s the cadre of 500+/- property portfolio owners/operators (i.e. Portfolio threshold = ‘Own &/or fee manage a minimum of five LLLCommunities &/or 500+ rental homesites – MH & RV’), who appear, for the most part, to be engaging in aforementioned ‘Buy Here – Pay Here’ drill, where new home sales and seller-financing are concerned. This practice has become so widespread, LLLCommunity folk have become known as the New Breed of MHRetailer & Lender. But this cadre accounts for only 15 percent of the national inventory of this unique, income-producing property type.

Then there’s the smaller, mostly Mom & Pop owned/operated properties, usually numbering fewer than 100 rental homesites apiece, that appear to be minimally engaged in the ‘Buy Here – Pay Here’ business model. Why? Probably not deep enough pockets to buy and resell more than one home at a time, let alone carry the financing. Also, lack of operational and marketing knowledge, especially among second and third generation owners, and those who’ve never been anything but passive investors. This sole proprietor segment accounts for the remaining 85 percent of national inventory of 50,000+/-LLLCommunities.

Bottom line? Don’t expect any major changes, albeit except for small ones under way – and just described, in the near future. These matters are not talked about openly at national meetings planned and hosted by national advocacy bodies. Just ‘how bad’ is that situation? One national advocacy bodies does ‘next to nothing’ to promote its’ members and their housing product, i.e. no website, no social media, nada. The other entity? When was the last time you saw or read of any plan(s) to rejuvenate the manufactured housing industry?

Someday, somewhere, ‘Selling More Community Series Homes into LLLCommunities Nationwide!’ should and will become the national topic of conversation – and hopefully action, among manufactured housing aficionados and land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators in this business for the long haul. Perhaps this national, across industry segment or component lines, will begin at the 24th International Networking Roundtable, 9-11 September 2015, in San Diego, CA. After all, that’s the very THEME of this year’s mega – event, expected to draw a 250 mix of MHIndustry & LLLCommunity businessmen and women. Will YOU be there?

Furthermore, RUMOR has it a treatise is being prepared, even as you read these lines, picking up where last year’s (2014) nationally distributed WHITE PAPER left off, actually making positive, practical suggestions to this noble end, i.e. rejuvenating the manufactured housing industry!. Let’s hope it’s completed in time for distribution at the Networking Roundtable in San Diego. You’ll have to be present though, to get a copy.

POSTSCRIPT. What makes aforementioned corporate cooperation so difficult, if not impossible, at times? Self-serving competitive interests of corporate CEOs protecting the interests (e.g. regional and national market share) of their firms, and as they see it, their stakeholders, employees, even their jobs. Simply a sad reality of business life (Or is it?) in corporate America. And things aren’t any better where competing national advocacy bodies are concerned; but there, it’s more territorial than anything else; e.g. MHARR = smaller regional home manufacturers and no one else; COBA7® = land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators and their lenders in US & CN; and, MHI = representatives from every segment of the manufactured housing industry.

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus & MHM®Master
Consultant to the Factory-built Housing Industry,
The Land-lease-lifestyle Community Asset Class &
Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®

Introduction to blog posting # 353. This past week has been filled with traveling, meetings, networking, and pondering what to include in this four part blog posting. Yes, Spencer Roane, MHM® and I made it to Washington, DC., via OH, PA, NJ, DE, & MD. Once at the expensive Capital Hilton Hotel, (Part I) we met with influencers from government and the MHIndustry. (Part II) Everyone enjoys a mystery, but fewer the better in business environs! One is about to be ‘splained’ and resolved in the Allen Letter professional journal. Part III, in a word, was ‘difficult’ to write. Kinda like criticizing a loved one; but if they’re – in one’s opinion – headed down the wrong path, we have a responsibility to speak out. So…And finally; (Part IV) if you’ve ever wanted to showcase your firm’s product or service, in person, before 200-250 LLLCommunity owners & operators, here’s your unique opportunity to do so! And hey, keep those letters coming!

Following a relaxing and gastronomically-pleasing weekend dining on fresh seafood (raw oysters, boiled crab, shark steaks, & scrumptious scallops) at Mark’s Place in Cape May, New Jersey, George Allen and Spencer Roane brunched, in Lewes, Delaware, with American Housing Advocate’s Bruce Savage, while enroute to Washington, DC. Bruce is alive and well, free-lancing for several state MHAssociations.

COBA7® affiliates, Allen & Roane, met with Pam Danner, esquire, manufactured housing program director at HUD. Covered a lot of territory in the hour spent together, but the most important, if not exciting topic, came near the end – when we learned of shared interest in promoting HUD-Code manufactured housing as affordable housing!

COBA7® ‘MHInsiders’, Allen & Roane then met with Marc Weiss, esquire, and recently retired MHARR executive Danny Ghorbani. Here the range of topics stretched from inaccurate tallying of monthly and annual new HUD-Code home shipment totals, to affiliating with COBA7®, and our shared interest in needed and adequate – if not new, national representation of all post-production components of the manufactured housing industry, as well as the land-lease-lifestyle community (a.k.a. manufactured home community) realty asset class!

Allen & Roane also met with MHI chairman Nathan Smith, near the end of the day, to network and discuss matters of mutual interest.

The busy day ended with Allen & Roane dining with real estate investors not affiliated with any of the entities identified in the previous paragraphs.

Bottom line? This was one heckuva day for COBA7® affiliates. As blog floggers (readers) know, the upcoming 24th annual International Networking Roundtable features keynote presentations by executives representing all major HUD-code home manufacturers, addressing the theme:

‘Selling More Community Series Homes into LLLCommunities Nationwide!’

…and the presence of all the GSEs at this year’s stellar event in San Diego. This COBA7® visit to Washington, DC., frankly, planted seeds for the anticipated theme of the 25th Roundtable in 2016 – yet to be announced.

Decades Old MH Mystery Solved!

Have you noticed & wondered: ‘Why do monthly & annual HUD-Code new home shipment numbers never tally the same, when reported by the manufactured housing industry’s two national advocacy entities?”

Well, they’re not the same! Probably never have been, though they should be! But guess what? This perennial mystery has been solved, and the tell-all expose’ will be featured in the July issue of the Allen Letter professional journal! Not only that, given the existence of a legitimate national source for ‘home shipment numbers’, a practical solution is evident, and will be proposed, to end this decades-long confusing state of affairs! Don’t miss it this truly historic story.

If not already affiliated with the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, or COBA7®, and receiving the Allen Letter professional journal, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 to do so. Cost? Only $134.95 to join with the other 250 ‘MHInsiders’ already benefitting from statistical research, helpful resources, print & online media, networking & deal-making, property management training/certification, & national advocacy (e.g. ombudsman – press & historian services) available by affiliating with COBA7®.

‘Ah, The Bloom is Off the Rose!’

As a 20 years, direct, dues-paying member of MHI, my respect for the institute in general, and NCC division in particular, wanes!

And that’s not easy for one to say, who’s been a (founding) National Communities Council board member since 1995 – shortly before this MHI division began its’ work in January 1996.

What’s happened? I disagree with the direction the council has taken during the past few years, as attendance at its’ national meetings has dropped from dozens of land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators of all sizes, to rarely more than a dozen today. At last week’s NCC meeting, of the dozen or so board members in the room, half were bona fide ‘owners’; the remainder, salaried executives from property portfolio firms.

Besides the declining participation in meetings,

• Council leadership should not, in my opinion, be dominated –as it appears to be – by executives and owners of large property portfolios. This troublesome issue was underscored twice last week when 1) a council executive expressed his opinion in public, that it’s unnecessary to qualify in writing how certain proprietary rent survey results are representative only of institutional grade LLLCommunities, and not LLLCommunities at large throughout the same local housing market. The problem with not doing so? Large property portfolio LLLCommunity site rents tend to be higher than neighboring properties. And such skewed reporting can provide cover for further rent increases. And 2), a REIT executive bullied attempted opposition to certain pre-decided agenda topics. So, it was no surprise when one meeting attendee opined privately, following the meeting: “Perhaps the time has come for manufacturer floor dues, paid by small LLLCommunity owners/operators, be diverted to an entity that better represents our interests.”

• Ignoring presence of recreational vehicle rental sites in LLLCommunities is, in my opinion, wrong. Ever since the ALLEN REPORT began ranking property portfolios according to total rental homesite count in 1985, all developed and rentable sites have been included in corporate totals, including those for recreational vehicles. And now that LLLCommunities routinely site six different types of shelter (i.e. pre-HUD ‘mobile homes’; post-HUD manufactured homes, modular units, ‘park model RVs’; ‘RVs for a season’; even site-built homes constructed on-site to look like manufactured homes) this TREND of acquiring mixed-use destination (i.e. MH & RV together) properties, is well established! However, the debut of the NCC’s ‘Top 50 List’, signals MHI/NCC’s desire to change this 26 years of precedent. Specifically, the ‘Top 50 List’ does NOT include RV sites. Consequences? Ignoring the obvious business model trend, and reshuffling of some portfolio rankings. In the latter instance, the most significant being real estate investment trust SUN Communities, Inc., supplanting ELS, Inc., as ‘Largest Owner/operator of LLLCommunities in the World!’ So henceforth, while the ALLEN REPORT continues to identify ELS, Inc., as #1, MHI’s NCC division will likely rank the firm as being only #2. This is yet another sorry consequence of the ongoing and unnecessary disunity that so characterizes the manufactured housing industry! Like it or not, let’s be clear: Recreational vehicles, and RV rental sites are part of our present and future business models!

• More encroachment? Announcement last week, of NCC’s intent to imitate more of COBA7®’s SSRD (Signature Series Resource Document) research; specifically, relating to LLLCommunity Operating Expense Ratios, or OERs. COBA7®’s predecessor articulated the Official MHIndustry Standard Chart of Operating Accounts in 1992, and has been reporting/updating appropriate LLLCommunity OERs ever since. But then, perhaps this is yet another self-serving effort to produce one’s own version of another benchmark statistic, as appears to be the case with aforementioned skewed site rent reporting.

• Don’t look for any of this (the preceding) to change anytime soon! In my opinion, two reasons. As long as MHI continues to practice ‘affluence gerrymandering’ (i.e. scheduling its’ meeting venues in high cost locations, e.g. valet parking @ $47.00/night in Washington, DC) – discouraging participation and decision-making by other than the most successful and wealthy of its’ members; and, continued prohibition of proxy voting at annual elections – as was made clear in new NCC operating procedures circulated for comment last week, present day status quo will prevail, and overall meeting attendance will continue to hover at the ‘only 100’ mark..

Conclusion? All this prompts one to wonder about the value and efficacy of one’s institute membership on one hand; and, whether worth the time and resources to attend and strive against established NCC practices, on the other hand. For me? Per the subtitle of this part of today’s blog posting, “As a 20 year direct, dues-paying member of MHI, my respect for the institute in general, and NCC division in particular, wanes!” However, if I and the few other sole proprietor LLLCommunity owners don’t hang around, to make our views known, it’s downright scary to imagine what might be dictated in the future.

Sponsorship @ 24th Networking Roundtable

We announced nine unique sponsorship opportunities in last week’s blog posting. Already, two major opportunities have been spoken for, by mortgage originators and a real estate investment firm.

What are YOU waiting for? When will you have an opportunity again, to present your unique product and or service to 200 – 250 LLLCommunity owners/operators and other registrants at this year’s event in San Diego, CA., 9-11 September 2015. Simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764, to learn details and decide which social networking event to sponsor.

Introduction to blog posting # 352. Are YOU overlooking this source for chattel capital? YOU want to participate in the Biggest & Best LLLCommunity networking, deal-making, educational event in all of 2015? Tapped into the timely and helpful resources available to YOU from Allen & Roane? Have YOU read The Advance Man yet? Four questions and answers for manufactured housing businessmen and women nationwide!

Local Chattel Capital Financing of Manufactured Homes in
Land-lease-lifestyle Communities!

Here’s an email exchange between veteran LLLCommunity operators, one shared with other area property owners, talking of their recent success obtaining manufactured housing and property loan commitments from a regional bank…

“A little over two years ago, _____sent an email note to several of us in the _____area who stay in touch with each other, and said, “Guess what? I received a letter from the president of a local bank who actually said he wants to do business with community/park owners!” We all met, and eventually developed a program involving that banks’ financing of manufactured homes we buy and resell within our communities – filling vacant lots, increasing cash flow and property value, and upgrading our properties. That bank also expressed an interest in financing our communities. Today I received a loan commitment from the bank which will save my firm almost $350,000 in interest over the next five years! Had _____ and I not made an effort to stay in touch with one another, I might never have been invited to that meeting two years ago. Thanks _____!”

And this from the other party…

“This bank has really benefitted from meeting us too. At a lunch meeting a month or so ago, a representative of the bank indicated to me our introduction to them, and resulting loan programs, have resulted in more than $20 million in new loan business for them, in just the past 1 ½ years!”

So, what have YOU done to reach out to your local lending institutions to ‘test the borrowing waters’ for financing new and resale homes on-site in your LLLCommunity, even refinancing the property itself? Maybe the time is ‘right’ for YOU to do so.

II.

A Unique Opportunity…

Be a Major Sponsor at This Year’s 24th Networking Roundtable!

Heretofore, mostly $$$ lenders and brokers, specializing in originating land-lease-lifestyle community mortgages, have been the primary sponsors of nine social networking events at the annual International Networking Roundtable. This year we’re opening up this unique opportunity to anyone who’d like Maximum Exposure before 250+/- owners/operators of LLLCommunities from throughout the U.S. and Canada!

What’s different this year? For starters, all the major HUD-Code home manufacturers will be present as keynote speakers, holding forth on this event theme:

How to Sell More Community Series Homes into LLLCommunities Throughout the U.S.!

Furthermore, all the GSE’s (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, for starters) will be present, and possibly the FHFA, as well as senior executives from MHI & MHARR. And as usual, there’re nearly two dozen educational sessions. So, if your firm, as a product and or service supplier/vendor has an active and lively interest in this realty asset class, you’ll want to be Front & Center when these folks gather 9-11 September 2015 at the Hilton Resort Hotel on Mission Bay in San Diego, CA.

Specifically, you and or your firm can sponsor one of two breakfasts at $3,500.00 per F&B (food & beverage) event; one of two luncheons at $5,000.00 apiece; either evening reception at $6,500.00; and all three scheduled ‘breaks’ at a one time total of $8,500.00.

What do YOU get for your sponsorship? Prominent display of your corporate logo on all Networking Roundtable literature. For example; the Registration List prepared for this event is widely recognized as being the most comprehensive compilation of LLLCommunity owners/operators available anywhere – and will feature YOUR logo and contact information during 2015 & 2016! Your firm will also be singled out several times during the event proper. AND, if you care to do so, you’re welcome to distribute premium gifts at the event(s) YOU sponsor!

For more information, simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

III,

Allen & Roane in Washington, DC., @ 15 & 16 June!

As used to be said about dance marathons ‘decades ago’, our dance card is full! From the time we arrive in our nation’s capitol on Sunday, the 14th of June, until we leave later that week, our time is committed to meetings with colleagues from MHARR, MHI, HUD, & COBA7® – plus businessmen and women who want to ‘talk shop’ with us, about a variety of MHIndustry & LLLCommunity-related topics! Are YOU on that list? If not, but would like to have a frank, albeit probably short, discussion regarding where the manufactured housing industry is today – and probably headed, contact either one of us. If need be, use the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE in the previous part of this blog posting.

On a related subject, watch this blog posting next Sunday for a summary of what occurs at the National Communities Council division’s meeting on 6/15. Two of five topics I requested be placed on the agenda, made it – three did not. Should make for an interesting meeting – and a most revealing follow up report via this blog, and elsewhere.

And as you likely suspect, the ‘Open Letter to the Manufactured Housing Industry & LLLCommunity Asset Class’, previewed in blog posting #351, continues to materialize, and will soon be ready for industry wide distribution.

IV.

The Advance Man, by Rick Robinson

Hey, just finished reading a genuine thriller of a novel! In this new release, Rick Robinson’s Washington, DC setting, and plot (political intrigue), calls to mind Gary Grossman’s Executive Actions and Executive Treason. Not only that, Rick’s style, i.e. sharing a new body of knowledge – or two, with his reader (e.g. inner workings of DC politics & Godfather Rules), reminds one of the famous mystery novelist, Dick Francis.

OMG. I’d tell you more, but you’ll read the entire review of The Advance Man, in an upcoming issue of the Allen Letter professional journal! Seriously. This is one book you do not want to miss reading. How to get your copy of The Advance Man? Visit www.authorRickRobinson.com. And hey, if the author’s name, Rick Robinson, sounds familiar to you, it should. He’s Vice President of state and regulatory affairs/general counsel at MHI – and this is his ninth book. And be aware, there’s yet another thriller in the works from him. So, like me, become a Rick Robinson fan, and join in this reading adventure!